Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

Congregate until They're Much Too Loud
By
Michael C. Riedlinger

            Nick Damici is a busy man. Between appearances on various TV crime dramas, he somehow found time to co-write and star in the breakout film of this year’s “After Dark Horrorfest”, Mulberry Street. Directed by Jim Mickle, this film had me admittedly worried going in. Come on, fucking rat people? Honestly, as I sat back and the lights went dark, I did not expect a lot. The next 85 minutes were some of the best survival-horror has had to offer in a long time.

            Most of the action revolves around the denizens of a tenement apartment on Mulberry Street in New York City. Damici’s character, Clutch, is waiting for his daughter to come home from war. He’s a typical looking tough-guy New Yorker just trying to do the best he can with what he has, and maybe that’s what makes him so likeable. Sometimes you get a pretty boy in drab clothing, and sometimes you get an everyman. Without that everyman grounding, the rest of this film would not work. He is the guy down the block, or your buddy’s dad. You know this guy from around the neighborhood and you don’t want harm to come to him.

            Mickle plays that up and, as we meet more of the endearing cast, we begin to see these people as an extended family. Dear god, it’s the cast of *batteries not included, and we can tell that something very bad is about to happen to all of them! Between the photography of Ryan Samul and the editing Mickle himself does, the whole film has a sinister tone from the beginning. The use of color in the film is what you might expect from an indie art film, not a horror flick. The grainy picture mimics the gritty setting, and the twisted sound, the constant scratching and digital interference, really get into your head and begin the fuck-job that starts with the building super being bitten by a rat.

            No big deal, it’s a rat bite. Except it’s more than that. The moment is captured as though from a zombie film and it carries a sense of dread with it. From there, the director subtly sets up a few surprises for later and we watch as havoc slowly envelopes Manhattan Island. The government is inept, the people little more than foolish, arrogant animals. Clutch’s daughter is fighting her way home through streets filled with monsters and the film makes a very clear statement of admiration to veterans of American wars. That is not enough to guarantee the characters’ safety, however, and we are utterly grateful when Casey and her father finally meet up. Together they beat a path back to the apartment building. The natural lighting used for these shots grants a whole new level of believability to the film because we see the darkened alleys and streets in the same sinister veil we might in Clutch or Casey’s position.

            Someone I spoke with after the screening compared it to 28 Days Later, but I pointed out that this was much grittier, much less polished and the film is better for it. The whole while, no one questions that these creatures are rat people. They have little snouts and scrabbling claws, and they are utterly terrifying because we see so little of them. By the end of the film, the director has done a thorough job of making our skin crawl and filling our heads with images that you really do not want there. I can only pray that no fans of hallucinogenics see this film because I cannot see that ending well.

            Fans of survival horror acknowledge the difficulty of ending this type of film. No one enjoys seeing the characters we like die at the conclusion of a movie like this, but it can also be cheap if they get away easily or if the film ends abruptly. Damici has this covered though, and the closing shots carry a gravitas we do not normally get from a film like this. In the end, all survival horror films are about people and the decisions they make. Damici and Mickle give us a group we can identify with and show us exactly how deep their humanity runs. Of all the films shown by After Dark, this was hands down the best and easily stands on its own. It may be difficult to market a movie like Mulberry Street, but solid word of mouth from both the horror fans and the critical community should carry it well once it hits DVD. This is the type of smart, artistic horror film we really need more of, so make sure you see it. Mulberry Street is worth every penny!